I did the cs alt upgrade on my 70 elco. I haven't started the elco yet so I don't know if this is a serious problem. The gen light blinks when the ign is turned to the on position. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Never heard of that one. Are you sure you don't have the wires mixed up? Not sure if it would do that but I sure can't think of anything else.

How is everything wired? Did you modify the wiring at the old external voltage regulator? Sounds like you have power from the GEN lamp going through the old external voltage regulator and the points are opening and closing making the GEN lamp blink.

The gen light blinks when the key is turned to the on position, with the engine off. It is not connected to the points. I finally drove the car. The gen light is constantly on while driving. The battery was completly discharged after about 10 miles. It seems everybody is having a problem with this conversion.

Check the part ## of the bulb . I think they used a blinking bulb for the emergincy brake bulb. you might have used that bulb in the wrong place.

The bulb was not a problem before the upgrade.

The gen light blinks when the key is turned to the on position, with the engine off. It is not connected to the points. I finally drove the car. The gen light is constantly on while driving. The battery was completly discharged after about 10 miles. It seems everybody is having a problem with this conversion.
Greg was referring to the points in the voltage regulator not the ignition points.

A lot people have a problem because they expect the new alt to solve all their problems and they keep using the existing wiring. No one has had the problem you describe. What conversion instructions did you follow? It's obviously wired wrong if it drained the battery in 10 miles.

I'd pull the connector off the alternator. Turn the key on and measure the bulb wire in the connector (blue?) to ground. You should read a steady 12 volts to ground. If you have that next try a ground strap to the alternator case. It might have a poor ground but only heard this fixed anything in rare instances.
After that have the alternator checked. The only time I've seen blinking GEN lights on SI alternators is when they were going out.

I have removed the old external regulator. I followed the directions from tech section on this site.
Which wire from the plug on a cs alt goes to the gen light? The power wire goes from the plug to the stud on the alt, then to red wire on the core support then back to the dist. block from the dist. block to the battery with a fusible link. Is this right?

I have removed the old external regulator. I followed the directions from tech section on this site.
Which wire from the plug on a cs alt goes to the gen light?
"L" is for the light.
"S" is for the voltage sense for the regulator.
"F" is for the field (not used).
"P" is I think a diagnostic terminal.


The power wire goes from the plug to the stud on the alt, then to red wire on the core support then back to the dist. block from the dist. block to the battery with a fusible link. Is this right?
http://www.madelectrical.com/images/chevym1.jpg

That diagram is similair, but a little diffrent. Should I have left in the ext regulator?

I have removed the old external regulator. I followed the directions from tech section on this site.
Which wire from the plug on a cs alt goes to the gen light? The power wire goes from the plug to the stud on the alt, then to red wire on the core support then back to the dist. block from the dist. block to the battery with a fusible link. Is this right?
The wiring diagram shown is a portion of the original wiring for these cars, some of the voltage reg wires are missing. I don't think Greg meant to imply your car should be wired that way.

The intructions in the tech section will work, perhaps not the best but should work. The voltage reg can be removed. The brown wire from the alt light in the dash, used to go to voltage reg, should be connected to the L terminal on the alt. The S wire I assume you have tied to the main output lug of the alt, this is the sense wire. The main wire from the alt should go to the horn relay on the core support. From there it goes to the distribution block(junction block) on the core support by the battery then to the battery through a fusible link.

Now the sense wire really should go to the horn relay since that's the main distribution point for the power. You want to sense and control the voltage at that point not at the back of the alt as there can be quite a difference between those two points. I wouldn't worry about that at the moment, you have a real problem to fix first. John said he's seen flashing gen light when the regulator is going. I would confirm all the wiring and if it appears correct take the alt and have it tested. That's what I would do, pretty simple to pull the alt and have it tested. That way you confirm the car wiring is either good or bad depending on how the alt checks out.